Outback Food Had No Taste, Declining Quality

Last night we went and were both surprised at the lack of taste in the food. We ordered the Buffalo Chicken Strips as a appetizer. The strips were very greasy, and the sauce was Chalky, as if it was a dry mix they added water to. The blue cheese dressing tasted like sour cream. Our bread came out cold and very hard (Normally it comes warm). My potato soup was very salty and watery. It no longer comes with the bacon, cheese and chives on top. I asked the waitress when she brought the soup, where are the toppings? She stated that they no longer include this on top of the soup. I had asked for a new piece of bread for ours was rock hard, she took the bread back into the kitchen. Our steaks came out and I had to check that they brought me the right cut of meat. I ordered the Victoria's Filet, as I always do and normally get a nice 1-1.5 inch thick cut of meat. The piece they brought out to me looked more like a minute steak, less than a inch thick. When my waitress came around I checked with her, and she said I did get the correct piece of steak. However when I cut into it, it was very tough. Filet should taste like butter, however this was like eating leather. It also was lacking their seasoning. It had no taste to it at all. When our waitress came around again, I asked if they changed their seasoning on the meat. She had said no. I asked to see the manager, and after waiting 15 minutes no one showed up. I ended up paying the full bill and leaving. I love outback and was totally surprised at the food quality decline. I do not know if they got a new meat supplier or if I got the incorrect piece of meat, but it was not what I normally get.

I would like to go back again however I do not want to pay 60 and have a repeat of my last nights dinner. I would like some sort of coupon to try the outback experience again. Thank you for your time in reading this.

Well, I work at Outback. You didn't say where your outback wasexactly. Here in Wisconsin we still top our potato soup with cheese,bacon bits, and chives. I haven't heard of any policy changes onthat. The thing about your letter that I find hard to believe is thatyou actually had to wait 15 minutes for a manager. Did you know thatall our managers wear pagers at outback? All we have to do is push abutton and they are there within 30 seconds, saying "who paged me,what do you need?".
So either your server was completely incompetent, which I doubt, oryou are exaggerating.
Sometimes the fillets do range in size, but if it was really that badand that big of a problem, they would have fixed it immediately.
As for the toughness of the steak, how did you order it? If you orderit well done you may as well chew on a piece of your shoe because welldone steak is always leathery. And if you did order a nice mid-rarefilet, they would have done a recook in minutes.
As for the chicken strips, we cook everything in house everyday. Seriously, the prep cooks get there at 8am just to make everythingwhen we don't even open till 4. I assure you it's not powder mix. That must have just been a personal taste preference of your own.

Also about the bread- either you let it sit on your table too long(which is often the case) or you really did have a cold loaf. Eitherway what you need to understand is that there is one oven for thebread and we load it all the time, but sometimes there is not enoughsupply for the demand and the bread isn't quite toasty enough. If wedon't bring it out until it's warm you will complain for waiting solong. If we bring it out right away and it's not quite toasty youwill complain too. So really, if your bread wasn't warm enough justtell your server and wait 2 minutes. I promise it won't kill you.

I agree with the letter writer. The Outback's food isn't all thatgood. I went there a couple of years ago and there steaks had notaste. Although I eat my steaks medium rare this one tasted like theyjust sliced it off of the cow and slapped it on my plate, with noseasonings at all. The roll reminded me of a hockey puck and even theDew that I had tasted watered down. With there prices, I expectedthe food to be better. I haven't been back and don't plan on goingback, unless someone treats me (hint-hint).

I don't care for writers who want compensation, especially when theydidn't even care for the food in the first place. But this wasactually a pretty good letter. Lots of details help qualify thestory.
I would like to know the location, though, as I have enjoyed theOutback offerings at several other locations. That way I could avoideating at this one.
"The blue cheese dressing tasted like sour cream..." Very true! Yearsago I wrote PFB about that same issue, and even was contacted byOutback who, of course, claimed their bleu cheese dressing wasterrific! They claimed they would even throw on extra crumbles ifrequested, but I sure in your case they wouldn't have!
The best recourse: Don't eat there anymore. There are dozens ofexcellent restaurants nearby, I'm sure, to try. Let friends (and PFB)know of your experience, then eventually this outlet willself-destruct. Perhaps even an Outback Executive will drop in,UNIDENTIFIED, and try the Victorias Filet, bleu cheese-less dressing,and topless water soup. Then something may actually happen! Are youlistening Outback???